DeWine is being awfully deferential to GOP lawmakers

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine might as well mount his veto pen over the fireplace because he sounds as if he won't need it much anymore. At least that was one possible takeaway from a comment DeWine, a Republican, made when asked whether he would veto bills working their way through the Ohio General Assembly to revive August special elections to allow for votes on amendments to the Ohio Constitution. "I think that if both houses approve this, that's the direction they want to go, I'm going to sign it," he said Monday. "I think that there is some advantage to having these matters over with and August will do that." Well, if the Republican-dominated Ohio Senate and House agree on something, who is DeWine to argue? The Plain Dealer reported Monday that DeWine dodged a slew of questions from reporters seeking his rationale for supporting the idea. He might as well have dropped a smoke bomb and vanished for all the explanation he was willing to provide. "I'm done," the governor said. The Plain Dealer reported that he was "chuckling as he stepped away." He also said he wanted to focus on mental health and the state budget. We're sure he did, but the matter DeWine didn't want to talk about is serious business. Republican lawmakers want to bring back August special elections — they were largely eliminated in a bill DeWine signed into law a few months back — for a very specific reason. Their goal is to win voter approval of an amendment that would make amending the state Constitution harder, including by raising the threshold for passage of future amendments from 50 percent plus one to 60 percent. It's an anti-democratic measure that Republicans are hoping will appeal to anti-abortion voters, bringing them out in droves to pass it in what is usually a low-turnout election in the dog days of summer. The cost of such an election could run north of $20 million. Republicans are in a hurry because another proposed constitutional amendment, which would protect reproductive freedom in Ohio, including abortion access, will likely appear on the November ballot. Other amendments Republicans oppose, including reform of redistricting in the wake of their unconstitutional gerrymandering of congressional and state legislative districts, also loom in coming years. The GOP's immediate concern, however, is stopping passage of the abortion-rights amendment. Republicans are hoping that if they're successful in August, pro-choice voters won't be able to make it over the higher threshold in November. If the GOP plan fails, there's a good chance the abortion-rights amendment will pass. A Baldwin-Wallace University Community Research Institute poll, released in October, found that 59.1 percent of the Ohio voters polled favored an amendment to make abortion a fundamental right. That's compared to 26.7 percent who would oppose such an amendment. Under the current rules, those are not good odds for Republicans, most of whom are keen on making it all but impossible to obtain an abortion in the Buckeye State. DeWine's comment about deferring to the will of the legislature aside, we don't truly believe he intends to sit by the fire like a former hunter gazing at his rifle mounted above the mantle and recalling the good old days. No, DeWine has used his veto power before and will likely use it again. He doesn't want to exercise it regarding August special elections because he's staunchly pro-life. He probably wants the Constitution to be harder to amend to prevent passage of the proposed abortion-rights amendment. If that's the case, he should just say so. Some Republicans, such as Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, have been up-front about their intentions to make protecting abortion rights harder. Others have engaged in, let's say, some rhetorical sleight of hand. The explanation from those Republicans, such as Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, is that the Constitution needs to be harder to amend to protect it from "out-of-state" special interests. As we've noted before, Ohio voters, not special interests, are the ones who ultimately decide whether a proposed constitutional amendment should pass. The proper way to amend the state Constitution, however, is not by trying to slip through a consequential change when few voters are paying attention. Politicians should defer to the will of the voters, not each other.